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REPLY 



OF 



Hon. THOS. L. JONES 



TO 



GOVERNOR STEVENSON, 



OF KENTUCKY. 



McGill & Withekcw, Printers and Stereotypers, Washington, D. C. 










JS 



TO THE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY. 



Fellow-Citizens: I come before you in a controversy 
already prolonged, deprecated by me from the beginning, 
and in which I had fondly hoped any further participation 
of mine ivould be unnecessary. But the recent communica- 
tion of Governor Stevenson to Senator McCreery, with the 
appended correspondence, forbids my silence. It becomes 
imperative upon me, as a man tenacious of his honor, to de- 
fend a reputation which for the first time, in a life of fifty 
years, much of it public, has ever been at all questioned. 

I desire to submit, briefly as possible under the circum- 
stances, a statement, analysis, and conclusion, to which I 
earnestly invite the close examination and strict scrutiny of 
an enlightened, just, and brave people, especially of those 
whom I have the honor to represent in the Congress of the 
United States. "Hear me for my cause," for it is the cause 
of truth. 

While at my home, enjoying the holiday interval of Con- 
gress, I received the following letter from Governor J. W. 
Stevenson: 
[Strictly confidential.] 

"Executive Office, 30th December, 1869. 

"My Dear Jones: Accept my thanks for your kind letter 
of congratulation upon my recent election to the Senate. In 
return permit me to tender to you and yours a happy New 
Year! I had a short, spirited contest, but I always kept the 
lead. I made the race against wind and tide, with Trimble, 
Carroll, Boone, Harrison, and the Senators of Owen and Ken- 
ton against me. 

"The people (God bless them) were for me, if small politi- 
cal cabals were against me. The race has left no sore places. 
I am in a good humor with everybody. I had hoped to have 
seen you in Cincinnati before I left there on 24th. Can't 
you pay me a visit? I hope so. I should be delighted to 
see you on the 8th January to my supper. I have thought 
again and again of your prediction the night I was nominated 
for Lieutenant Governor, when we slept together at Mrs. 
Wiugate's. Do you remember it? 

"I presume my election astonished you, as everybody 



nearly seemed to think Tom invincible. He was easily 
beaten. Out of the first, second, and third districts together 
I got nineteen to his twenty-two. Write to me, and believe 
me, very sincerely, yours. J. W. Stevenson. 

"Hon. T.L.Jones." 

This letter accounts for my luckless visit to Frankfort and 
the gubernatorial mansion on the evening of the 8th January 
last, as it also may appear to some as the prelude to a sequel 
in which, if there has been a contrivance, the contriver should 
be engulfed for all time. 

I arrived at Frankfort in the afternoon of the 8th, regis- 
tered my name at the Capitol Hotel, and shortly after, accom- 
panied by a friend, went straightway to the executive office 
on Main street. After sitting with the Governor an hour or 
more! I arose to return to my hotel, when he insisted that I 
should be his guest, that he had a room piupai-Acl for me, and 
he immediately went with me to the hotel, took my port- 
manteau in his hand, and escorted me to the mansion. Being 
shown to a room, I remained a short time, then went back 
to the hotel to see some friends, and when I returned to the 
mansion the company had assembled and the supper was 
going on. Here I met many old friends, and conversed with 
them upon general topics. At the end of the table I well 
remember meeting Mr. S. F. J. Trabue; we took wine to- 
gether and talked probably ten or twelve minutes. The sub- 
ject of the race for Congress in his district was mentioned; 
he said he expected to be a candidate, and asked me if I 
thought Mr. Beck would be. Mr. Beck's course in Congress 
was spoken of, and some of his votes, as differing with mine 
and others of the Kentucky delegation, as were also his 
social relations with Butler and other radical members. I 
distinctly recollect Mr. Trabue's saying that he would "pitch 
into" Mr. Beck. The Burb ridge matter, I am quite sure, 
was not, could not have been, mentioned, because I had ucver 
heard Mr. Beck's name connected with it, either here, at 
"Washington, or elsewhere. I had no conversation of any 
length with any member or members of the Legislature ex- 
cept that of the usual salutations among gentlemen on such 
an occasion, and the name of Burbridge and the Burbridge 
affair was not mentioned or thought of by me until the ban- 
quet was over and the guests had departed. 

At about 1 o'clock, as well as I can remember, the Gov- 
ernor escorted me to my chamber, then Sunday morning. 
Here we sat down, and after much talk, almost entirely of 



his own, telling me of his senatorial contest, who were his 
friends, who his enemies, often using the names of McCreery 
and Beck, (and here I discovered sparks of unkindness or 
jealousy;) he at length asked me, "what about that Burbridge 
matter?" and what I knew about Burbridge being recom- 
mended by any of the Kentucky delegation. I told him all 
I knew about it was what Colonel Blanton Duncan said to 
me, then describing Colonel Duncan's interview with me 
substantially, just as I have done whenever the matter has 
been spoken of, and as I have narrated it in my letters upon 
the subject. There could have been no misunderstanding, 
for my language was emphatic, and no second question was 
put to me on the subject. I cannot forget, however, that the 
Governor said, in speaking of those members of the Legis- 
lature from McCreery's region of the State who had voted 
for him, that if McCreery's friends made war upon them he 
would plage into their hands all the material he could with 
which to defend and maintain themselves. This conversation 
lasted till between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning, when the 
Governor bade me good night and withdrew to his own 
chamber. 

The next day, or that day rather, we breakfasted late, and 
the Governor and I went to church together. After church 
he accompanied me to the residence of Colonel Grant Green, 
a connexion of mine, with whom I had an engagement to 
dine. He sat with the family a short time in the parlor and 
left. After dinner I passed an hour and a half or two hours 
in the room of Senator Martin and Representative Lowe, 
who were boarding with Colonel Green. About dark I took 
leave of the family, and Colonel Green went with me to see 
my old friend and partner Hon. George R. McKee, of Gar- 
rard, and Dr. Dillie, of Harrison, who were rooming toge- 
ther. We sat and talked for half an hour or more, when 
Colonel Green and I left, he going to his home and I to the 
Capitol Hotel, where I took tea with Mr. J. C. Demoss, the 
representative of my own county. I mention these visits and 
interviews, as the only ones to or with any members of the 
Legislature during my stay in Frankfort, and I call upon 
one or all of these gentlemen to state whether the Burbridge 
matter was mentioned at all; and, if so, by whom and what 
was said? I have no recollection that any allusion was made 
to it. About 9 o'clock I returned to the Governor's man- 
sion, and on entering the parlor found himself, a young gen- 
tleman conversing apart, as I thought, with his eldest daugh- 
ter, and perhaps another lady, the wife of a friend of ours, 



6 

then on a visit to the Governor's family. I believe I was 
introduced to the young gentleman, Mr. Castleman, but have 
no recollection that a word passed between us during the 
evening. The conversation was on general topics, and chiefly, 
almost entirely indeed, at least that heard by me, between the 
Governor and myself. The young gentleman and the Gov- 
ernor's daughter soon withdrew to the next room. I was 
greatly surprised when the Governor, in his last communi- 
cation, attempted to locate our conversation on the Burbridge 
matter in his parlor, and in presence of the persons named. 
I have no recollection that the subject was there mentioned 
at all. It is not impossible, however, that it might have been 
alluded to; but one thing I know is impossible, that however 
or by whom alluded to, I could never have said that I had seen 
any petition for Burbridge, much less certain names upon it, 
because it would have been an untruth, and I had no earthly 
motive in saying it, About the hour of cloven the Governor 
accompanied me again to my bed-room, and sat down and 
talked, as on the night previous, at least two hours or more. 
No further mention of the Burbridge matter, but the sena- 
torial contest and other subjects occupied us until our eyes 
were weary, and the Governor departed with another kind 
"good night." The next morning, after a hurried breakfast, 
he walked with me to the cars and bade me adieu. Had an- 
ticipations and designs been accomplished, or had they van- 
ished without an established basis ? We shall see. 

I have been thus particular in describing this visit to Frank- 
fort and the executive mansion that the public may be the 
better able to place a just estimate upon the Governor's state- 
ment and argument, and upon mine. 

On the 15th of January I returned to Washington. During 
the month of Februaiy I received letters from Mr. Silver- 
tooth, of the Kentucky House of Representatives; Mr. Holt, 
of the Senate, and Mr. Hewitt, quartermaster general of the 
State, all asking me if I could give them any information 
touching the report that Mr. McCreery had recommended 
General S. G. Burbridge for office. I do not preserve my 
letters generally, receiving such a multitude, but destroy 
them as soon as answered. My recollection of these letters 
is, that they were not based upon the idea that I knew the 
fact for which they inquired, but that I could probably ascer- 
tain it. Messrs. Holt and Silvertooth had voted for Gov- 
ernor Stevenson fof United States Senator, and intimated 
that this information would be important to them. General 
Hewitt wrote in behalf of others in like attitude with Holt 



and Silvertooth, saying, I think that I would be conferring a 
favor upon the Democracy of the State by finding out the 
fact in reference to this report. My inference at once upon 
the reception of these letters was, that Governor Stevenson 
had told these gentlemen what I had said to him upon this 
subject when in Frankfort, never supposing for a moment 
that he had told more than what I did say, that being suffi- 
cient for them to make the inquiry. After some delay I 
answered their letters as satisfactorily as I could, and sub- 
stantially as detailed in my letters to Governor Stevenson, 
already published. I had yet no suspicion whatever that 
any one had represented me as having said that I had ever 
seen a petition for Burbridge, or that any of the Kentucky 
delegation had recommended him for office. I heard and 
thought no more upon this subject until while on a short 
visit home. On Saturday night, the 19th of March, was 
handed me the following telegram from J. 1ST. Furber, Esq., 
the representative from Covington, then at Frankfort. Mr. 
Furber had heard, probably from the Governor, something 
of this matter, and, as a true friend of mine, wished me to 
be set right: 

"Hon. T. L. Jones: A paper was read in the House yes- 
terday from McCreery and Beck, denying that they had ever 
siirned a recommendation for General Burbridge for office. 

rri • • • • • 

This raises a question ot veracity with you. You had better 
be here on Monday and set it right." * * * 

This telegram struck me with great surprise and with in- 
dignation, for the inference, of course, was, that some one 
had reported me as saying that those gentlemen had signed 
a recommendation for Burbridge. I could not then reach 
Frankfort by Monday, and having determined to speak at 
Independence on that day, I telegraphed Mr. Furber as fol- 
lows: 

"What do you meau? Who doubts my veracity, or how 
is it called in question? If any one says that I ever stated 
that McCreery, Beck, or anybody else signed a recommend- 
ation for Burbridge, he says falsely. I have an engagement 
for Monday." 

It then flashed upon my mind for the first time that Gov- 
ernor Stevenson had misconstrued or misrepresented what 
I had said to him on the night of his banquet, as he was the 
only person I had spoken to on the Burbridge subject during 
my visit to Frankfort. 



On Monday I received the following letter from Governor 
Stevenson: 

[Strictly confidential.] 

"Executive Mansion, 18th March, 1870. 

"My Dear Jones: During the night of my senatorial ban- 
quet you may remember that you spoke of having had a 
paper presented to you for your signature, by Blanton Dun- 
can, recommending Stephen Gano Burbridge to Andrew 
Johnson as Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the 
United States, and that McCreery, Beck, and Golladay 
signed it, and their names were to it when it was presented 
to you. Although this thing has been publicly talked of, 
and Trabue sent word to Beck in January that it was so 
talked of, though it has been in the papers, especially in the 
Paris and Lexington papers, a month ago, and although Gol- 
laday, Beck, and McCreery must have been informed of it 
many weeks since, no disavowal of the fact of their recom- 
mendation ever was known until Chenoweth received a letter, 
a day or two ago, from Mr. Beck, denying it; and it was 
stated last night that Mr. Griffith had received a letter from 
McCreery and Beck, stating that the statement that they 
had ever recommended Burbridge as Commissioner of Inter- 
nal Revenue was wholly false. Last night seven or eight 
members of the legislature, several of whom had heard your 
statement as to having seen Beck's, McCreery's, and Golla- 
day's names to the paper, came to my house and asked me 
to post you as to these denials. 

"I heard also that Beck had recently withdrawn the paper 
recommending Burbridge from the files, and left his receipt. 
Is this so? If it be, let me advise you to get a copy of the 
receipt, and lose no time in obtaining it. I have not seen 
any of the denials; but this matter of their recommendation 
has been used by Beck's opponents for this Congressional 
nomination, as Oscar Turner tells me, and it has been in the 
Paris and Lexington papers and no contradiction has ap- 
peared until now. 

"I have told all that I knew that your statement of seeing 
their signatures to the paper would be substantiated. I 
would place myself at once in a position where you can be 
corroborated. I presume all our delegation saw the paper. 
I write this for your own eye, to put you in possession of 
these reported denials. 

"I suspect saw the recommendation of Burbridge, 

and Blanton Duncan certainly knew who signed it. 

"If Beck did withdraw the papers, get a copy of his re- 



ceipt, and especially its date. I wrote you a long letter to 
Washington. You must throw your attention to Kenton. 

is very active, and will enlist county pride and county 

feeling in his favor. Is for you? How is ? How 

is ? Do you claim ? Can't you come up and 

spend a night? Sincerely and faithfully, yours, 

"J.'W. Stevenson." 

Now let the reader mark well every line of the above let- 
ter. "During the night of my senatorial banquet you may 
remember that you spoke of having had a paper presented 
to you for your signature by Blanton Duncan, recommend- 
ing Stephen Gano Burbridge to Andrew Johnson as Com- 
missioner of Internal Eevenue for the United States, and 
that McCreery, Beck, and Golladay had signed it, and their 
names were to it when it was presented to you." 

Now, I ask, " spoke to whom on the night of my senato- 
rial banquet?" Not to Trabue, for Trabue says, "I have 
no recollection that Colonel Jones mentioned the names of 
either Colonel McCreery or Mr. Golladay." 

I here insert Mr. Trabue's note to Governor Stevenson: 

"Frankfort, April 26, 1870. 
"Hon. J. W. Stevenson. 

"Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiry touching the con- 
versation between Colonel Jones and myself in reference to 
the recommendation of General Burbridge, I have to say 
that, at your banquet on the night of the 8th of January last, 
I met the Hon. T. L. Jones, who, in a conversation with me, 
stated, according to my best recollection, in substance, that 
Colonel Blanton Duncan had brought to him a paper signed 
by a portion of the Kentucky delegation recommending 
General Burbridge to office, and that Colonel Duncan asked 
him to sign it; that he declined, when the Colonel urged 
him persistently, and he replied, 'Crucify me first!' 

"I asked Colonel Jones if Mr. Beck's name was to the 
paper. He replied that it was, adding, I think, that it was 
high on the list. 

" I have no recollection that Colonel Jones mentioned the 
names of either Colonel McCreery or Mr. Golladay. 

"Very respectfully, S. F. J. Trabue." 

Trabue, then, is out of the question as to hearing that 
McCreery and Golladay signed. The Governor has failed to 
bring any other witness for the night of the banquet, when 
he first and properly fixes the conversation, and where the 



10 

" you spoke" was to him in the bed-room, and to no other 
human being. Let the Governor turn this point if he can. 

2. " Last night seven or eight members of the legislature, 
several of whom had heard your statement as to having seen 
Beck's, McCreery's, and Golladay's name to the paper," &c. 
I ask what member or members heard the statement? He 
has failed to bring one to the witness-stand, and I defy him 
to do it. They heard no statement from me, and if they ever 
heard it at all, they heard it from the Governor himself, or 
one of the " eight or ten people to whom he had in confidence 
mentioned it." It will be observed that our Governor is a 
" strictly confidential " gentleman, and imparts his confidence 
to every man in Kentucky. His mouth is a confidential 
trumpet. But he goes on, " came to my house (these mem- 
bers) and asked me to post you as to these denials." Now, 
these members, probably every one except Mr. Silvertooth, 
if he indeed was one, were strangers to me, and could have 
had no motive in having me posted, and 1 wanted no posting. 
He (the Governor) was the man to be posted, for he had given 
them the false information, and it was about to be developed. 

The remainder of this letter may seem to an uncritical eye 
to be an argument rather for my benefit, (and I was not dis- 
posed at first to criticize it myself,) but on considering the 
context, and what precedes and follows in this history, it was 
for his benefit alone. This letter wa^ first read by my fire- 
side at night, my wife and son being present, and my first 
remark was, " Well, here is the most incomprehensible mis- 
understanding or the most unblushing audacity on the part 
of Governor Stevenson that I ever knew a man guilty of." I 
felt amazed and angry, but the long and intimate relations 
which had existed between the Governor and myself induced 
me, with as much patience as I could command, to answer 
him immediately in the following letter : 

"At Home, March 21, 1870— Evening. 
"Dear Stevenson: I have just received your letter, and 
I must express my amazement at the statements therein 
made: 1st. That 1 had said to you, in our conversation at 
your house, that Blanton Duncan had presented me a paper 
recommending Burbridge, with Beck's, McCreery's, and Gol- 
laday's names attached to it. In this you are greatly mis- 
taken. It is impossible that I could have said so. I well 
remember the conversation, and what I said was this: that 
Blanton Duncan called, on me at ilie House of Representatives 
and said that the Kentucky delegation either- had done so or was 



11 

about to recommend General Burbridge for office, and asked me if 
I would unite in the recommendation, and that I promptly refused. 
I could not have said that I saw the paper, for I never did 
see any such paper. I told you at the same time that it was 
reported in Washington that McCreery and Golladay had 
gone with Burbridge, or for him, to solicit an appointment 
from the President; that it had been charged against Golla- 
day in the papers, and that he had denied it in the papers. 
I told you that this was all I knew about the matter. 2d. 
That several members of the Legislature had heard me make 
similar statements, viz, that I had seen the names of those 
gentlemen to a recommendation for Burbridge, is equally 
amazing to me. Now, I aver that no member of the Legisla- 
ture ever heard me make any such statement; and I have no re- 
collection of saying a word, upon the subject in Frankfort, 
except to yourself. I had very little conversation with any 
members of the Legislature, except Martin and Lowe, in 
their room at Green's; and there I do not think that subject 
ivas mentioned at all. There must be a great misapprehension 
somewhere, else a willful misrepresentation. Mr. Silvertooth, 
Mr. Holt, and General Hewitt, each wrote to me to know if 
McCreery had recommended Burbridge. I took some pains 
to find out, and could not ascertain; and I detailed to each 
one of them, just as I did to you, all I knew about the whole 
matter. I refer you to those letters, especially my letter to 
General Hewitt, as I suppose. Silvertooth and Holt have 
probably left Frankfort. I do not remember to have used 
Beck's name at all to you in speaking of the recommendation 
of Burbridge; but it was used in another connection, viz, 
his intimacy with Butler and other radicals. No human 
being ever heard me say that I had seen a recommendation 
for Burbridge, or that I had seen any name attached to it, for 
the reason that I never did see either, and I could not have told 
an untruth. I spoke, when .at all, of rumor, and of the 
interview with Duncan, just as narrated above. I received a 
telegram from Furber on Saturday, which I did not under- 
stand, but to which I replied, utterly denying that I ever 
made the statement that McCreery or Beck, or anybody, 
signed a recommendation for Burbridge. This matter annoys 
me, and if I find that it assumes a responsible shape, involv- 
ing my veracity, I shall publish a card. I cannot believe 
that you would willingly misrepresent me. I have written 
in haste. Yours, truly, Thomas L. Jones. 

•"P. S. — After asking several persons in Washington for 



12 

the facts, and learning .nothing positively, I told McCreery 
himself that such letters had been written to me making such 
inquiries, and he begged me to go to the appointment office 
in the Treasury and see if there were any applications there 
for Burbridge, and whose names were attached to them, so 
that I could report to the authors of those letters. I did so, 
and found that Burbridge had withdrawn all his papers, and 
I saw his receipt for the same. This might be significant. 
I made this statement to Holt and to General Hewitt. (See 
Hewitt's letter.) If any of the delegation ever signed for 
Burbridge they all now deny it. Blanton Duncan probably 
knows whether they ever did or not. 

"I return to Washington to-morrow. Spoke at Inde- 
pendence to-day with , and was well pleased with the 

result. Will write again from Washington. T. L. J. 

"P. S. — I have never heard of Beck's withdrawing any 
paper. T.L.J." 

This letter fully explains itself, and is in accordance with 
all my statements before and after, and needs very little com- 
ment. One important item in it, however, should be now 
mentioned: 1st. "That I had said to you in conversation at 
your house;" and further on, "I well remember the conver- 
sation," meaning, of course, the conversation in the bed- 
room; and further, " I have no recollection of saying a word 
upon the subject in Frankfort except to yourself," which was 
of course in the bed room. 

It should be observed also in this letter that I refer the 
Governor to my letters to Mr. Silvertooth, Mr. Holt, and 
General Hewitt, all of whom were intimate with him, and 
who doubtless had read them to him, as he says in his state- 
ment he had "advised them to write to Colonel Jones and 
get the statement directly from him." Now, if they read him 
these letters, written some time before, in which I make the 
game statement about the Burbridge matter that I make to 
him in the letter above and made to him on the night of the 
banquet, how could he write me the letter of the 18th March, 
and, indeed, the one which follows on the 26th March? I 
was detained at home by sickness until the 26th March, and 
I returned to Washington on the 27th. I found in my mail 
nothing from Governor Stevenson after his letter of the 18th, 
but I received the anonymous letter which now follows: 

" Frankfort, March 17. 
" Colonel T. L. Jones. 

"Sir: As a friend of yours, I wish to give you an item of 



13 

news that is engaging a good deal of attention in Frankfort, 
and in which I myself feel considerable interest, that of Beck 
and McCreery having signed a recommendation for Bur- 
bridge. It is now whispered around here that you deny it 
or evade a direct answer. 

"I must confess I can scarcely believe this to be so. The 
Governor has spoken of it to numbers of gentlemen, giving 
you as authority, and several others speak of it here, all giv- 
ing yourself or Blanton Duncan as authority, and I myself 
spoke of it, not, however, until it became publicly talked of 
here. I heard you detail the circumstance of the presenta- 
tion of the petition to you by Duncan, and that McCreery's 
and Beck's names ivere signed to it, and that you spurned it, 
and I admired you, as all Kentuckians will, for doing so, 
when you even had such uamoe to justify an act that might 
at that time have been considered only an act of policy, but 
which you would not do even to gain influence with the party 
in power. I suppose McCreery and Beck signed it, only 
thinking they might be better able to benefit their constitu- 
ents if they did so, but we gloried in you for not signing it. 

"I most assuredly would be obliged, if called upon, to cer- 
tify to the fact of having heard you say that the names " ivere 
signed" to the petition. So will a number of other gentle- 
men of the highest respectability. I cannot think, from the 
moral courage I have always known you to exhibit, that you 
would even evade a thing of that sort. "Where is the peti- 
tion? Can it not be produced? and, if not, why? Blanton 
Duncan, I am told, saw the names, and has told a good many 
gentlemen that those names were on it. I have no doubt they 
were doing what they thought for the best when they did 
sign it, and just let them say so, and come out and defend 
their act like bold brave Kentuckians should do ; every one 
would respect them for it, and excuse the deed for the motive's 
sake. 

"I write you this because I am a friend of yours, and I do 
not think either you or Duncan will place yourselves in the 
attitude of evading or denying a statement that can be so 
easily proved by so many people. Certainly you will not 
back down from a thing when you have all to lose and noth- 
ing to gain by it but contempt. Fortify yourself with 
plenty of proof, and all Kentucky will sustain you, her noble 
son, who had the courage to do right. Creep out of it, and 
my word for it you are a 'dead duck' sure. 

"Wishing to hear from you very soon, I am, truly, 

"Your Friend." 



14 



This offspring is without a name. "Who shall assume its 
paternity? Examine it well, my fellow-citizens; whose fea- 
tures does it resemble, and in whose interest or benefit was 
it brought forth? 

Mr. Benton's rule of criticism, in comparing two papers, 
was, if three words were identical and in the same connec- 
tion and upon the same subject, it gave suspicion. If nine 
words were so adduced, the proof was almost positive that 
they emanated from the same brain. Now, let us examine 
the Governor's letter and the anonymous one. 



The Governor says: 

1. As a dear friend, &c. 

2. I have told all that I 
knew. 

3. Although this thing has 
been publicly talked of. 

4. You may remember that 
you spoke of having had a 
paper presented to you for 
your signature by Blanton 
Duncan, recommending — and 
that McCreery, Beck, and 
Golladay signed it, and their 
names were to it when it was 
presented to you. 

5. The paper is the best 
evidence as to who signed it. 
Why is it not produced and 
exhibited? 

6. Blanton Duncan certain- 
ly knew who signed it. 

7. I hope you understand 
that the only motive in my 
letter to you was to place you 
on a proper guard, as a dear 
friend; and, 

8. I would place myself at 
once in a position where you 
can be corroborated, &c. 

Are these letters products of the same brain? I shall not 
determine. What would Mr. Benton say? 

The reception of this letter, the silence of Governor Ste- 
venson, and the incidental reports coming from Frankfort 
impelled me to issue the following card, which might have 



Anonymous says: 

1. As a friend of yours. 

2. The Governor has spoken 
of it to numbers of gentlemen. 

3. It became publicly talk- 
ed of here. 

4. I heard you detail the 
circumstance of the presenta- 
tion of the petition to you by 
Duncan, and that McCreery's 
and Beck's names were sign- 
ed to it. 



5. Where is the petition? 
Can it not be produced; and, 
if not, why? 

6. Blanton Duncan, I am 
told, saw the names. 

7. I write you this because 
I am a friend of yours. 



8. Fortify yourself 
plenty of proof, &c. 



with 



15 

been more prudently worded, but nevertheless niy honeat 
impulse. 

The adage that "falsehood travels a thousand miles while 
truth is putting on her boots" occurred to me, and I thought 
the remedy should be quick and sharp. 

!* To the Editor of the Courier- Journal: 

"Information having reached my ears that it has been cur- 
rently reported at Frankfurt, and especially among the mem- 
bers of the Kentucky legislature, that I had made the state- 
ment that I had seen a recommendation of General S. G-. 
Burbridge to President Johnson for office, and the names of 
Messrs. McCreery, Beck, and Golladay were signed to the 
same, I here avow that.no human being ever heard me make 
any such statement, and I pronounce him who says he did a 
liar and slanderer. "Thomas L. Jokes." 

"House of Representatives, 

"Washington City, D. C., March 28, 1870." 

This card I intended to apply to every one whom it might 
fit, from Governor Stevenson down. Two days after it was 
issued, and on the 30th March, I received from the Governor 
the following letter : 

[Strictly confidential.] 

"Executive Office, 1<oth March, 1870. 

"My Dear Jones: I received your letter of 2Lst two days 
ago. I was certainly as much surprised by it as you could 
have been by mine. 

"My letter, which so astonished you, was promptevd by the 
kindest motive. When writing it, I had never conceived it 
possible that I could have (as it now appears I did) misunder- 
stand your statement made on the evening of the 9th of Jan- 
uary, that a recommendation in writing had been presented 
to you by Blanton Duncan, asking that S. G. Burbr/dge 
might be appointed by the President Commissioner of Inter- 
nal Revenue for United States, and that the names of Be.ck, 
McCreery, and Golladay were upon it. Hearing incidentali'y, 
upon the evening I wrote, that Beck and McCreery were 
about denying it, I, upon the spur of the moment, and actu- 
ated by the warmest friendship, wrote to you advising you 
of the fact, never doubting then that you had seen their sig- 
natures, and your ability to establish that fact. I am truly 
glad now that I did write to you. It removes an erroneous 
impression from my mind of what you intended to convey, 
as compared with what I was positive you said. It enables 
me to put the matter right with some eight or ten people to 



16 

wliom I had, in confidence, mentioned it, by informing all such 
that you were misunderstood by me. I am incapable of mis- 
representing anybody; but least of all a valued friend like your- 
self, whose honor, truth, and nobility of character I would 
defend as quickly as my own. Of course you will understand 
that your statement of my having misunderstood you is suffi- 
cient. You and I can never be put in antagonism on points 
like these. I deeply regret that any misconception of what 
you said took place, and you will not doubt that it was 
wholly unintentional. I regret that any statement of mine 
should have done injustice to anybody, especially Beck or 
McCreery; but as far as lam concerned it shall be 0. K. 
Are you not mistaken in supposing and stating that you did 
not mention the subject to any one but myself? Did you not 
mention it to several members of the Legislature on the night 
of the 8th? I suspect you have forgotten it, but that, on re- 
viewing the past, you will find out that you are unintention- 
ally mistaken, and you will ascertain that you did mention it 
to many others beside myself at other places and times than 
the 8th or 9th of January at my house. "What you said to 
me, and those present at my house upon the 9th January, 
has been communicated to but very few, and to them in con- 
fidence. 

"The publicity of the rumor of Beck's indorsement of Mr. 
Burbriclge, which has been circulated since January in this 
district, and which appeared several weeks ago in the Paris 
and Lexington papers, did not spring from anything you said 
to me or others at my house. Did you ever speak of Beck's 
indorsement of Burbridge to Edward C. Marshall at the Cin- 
cinnati races last fall? Did you remember to have alluded 
to it at dinner at I. T. Martin's, in Cynthiana, on the day the 
Confederate dead were reinterred? Did you not hold a long 
conversation with S. F. J. Trabue on this subject in Frank- 
fort? He says so: that his recollection is, that you told him 
"that Beck's name was high on the list." I read him your 
letter, and told him he had clearly misunderstood. I have 
done the same thing to those who heard the conversation in 
my house, and who understood you as I did. 

I hope you understand that the only motive in my letter 
to you was to place you on a proper guard as a dear friend 
in the event of autagonism in statement between yourself 
and others on the existence of a fact. It is a subject I felt 
no interest in, and was in no way connected with. Very few 
know that 3^011 even told me, and those few have not spoken 
of it. The publicity comes from statements made by you at 



25 

me first," which he attributes to me in his note to Governor 
Stevenson, if I know myself, is totally unlike me, and never, 
on an} 7 occasion, fell from my lips. I here insert the follow- 
ing letter, received on my return to Washington on the 27th 
March : 

" Frankfort, March 17, 1870. 

"Hon. T. L. Jones. 

" Dear Sir : I have understood that the papers constituting 
the application and its support of General Burbridge for a 
high official position during President Johnson's administra- 
tion have been withdrawn from the State Department, and 
the receipt of Mr. Beck for them left on file. 

" May I ask of you the favor of obtaining for me a copy of 
the receipt and forwarding it to Frankfort. 

"Very truly, S. F. J. Trabue." 

This letter surprised me in the mention of Mr. Beck's 
withdrawing papers as Governor Stevenson's had received 
at home; and this idea of Beck's withdrawing papers, as I 
am told by General Hewitt, who has been in Washington 
for some weeks past, was drawn from my letter to him, 
(Hewitt,) in which, as we both think, Beck's name was not 
used at all, but, after speaking of Burbridge, I simply used 
the initial B. But these gentlemen, so eager in their search, 
would have it to mean Beck, although his name was nowhere 
mentioned in the letter. This is our recollection, but the 
letter would be the best proof. I kept no copy, but will 
publish it if General Hewitt sends it in time. I answered 
Mr. Trabue's letter immediately or very soon, telling him, 
just as I had told Governor Stevenson, Messrs. Silvertooth, 
Holt, and Hewitt, all I knew about the Burbridge affair, and 
saying of Mr. Beck that, so far as his withdrawing papers, I 
had never heard his name connected with the affair at all ; 
and I recalled to him, too, our conversation at the banquet, 
in which I expressly said the name of Burbridge was not 
mentioned. It is singular that Mr. Trabue never replied to 
my letter, and never intimated in any way that he differed 
with me in my statement of our conversation at the banquet, 
although this letter was received by him several weeks before 
the date of his note to Governor Stevenson. It might give 
additional light on this part of the subject if we knew who 
mentioned the matter to the other first, Stevenson or Trabue, 
and between Stevenson and the "several gentlemen who 
applied to me (him) to know what Colonel Jones had stated 
to me (him) upon the subject;" whether they first heard it 
3 



26 

from him or he from them; and also if he had published the 
calls upon Trabue and Castleman, in answer to which their 
notes to him were written. This might be significant. Here I am 
reminded of the Governor's comment upon the phrase " might 
be significant" in the P. S. of my letter of 21st March. It 
was used in reference to General Burbridge himself, and his 
objects, not my colleagues. 

But the Governor goes on and says he "understood Colo- 
nel Jones to say that it was rumored in "Washington that 
McOreery and Golladay had gone in a carriage with General 
Burbridge to the President's to urge his appointment." Part 
of this I did say in the bed-room, but the carriage, which he 
seems to make particular and impressive for effect, I totally 
den}'; for everybody knows that Senator McCreery never 
rides in carriages, and I never heard of his being in but one 
in my life, and that was with me on another occasion. 

He says, in his last communication, "I sought to give no 
publicity to this statement, and yet he says in his letter of 
March 26 he mentioned it to some "eight or ten people in 
confidence;" that might mean fifteen or twenty, probably did, 
and they each mentioned it perhaps, not so "strictly confi- 
dential," to fifteen or twenty others, and that covered the 
whole Legislature and a considerable part of Frankfort. 

But he told his friends, and he never "failed to state," that 
I had, on the night of the 9th, made the statement; bnt he 
has failed to give the name of one member of the Legisla- 
ture or friend who says he, the Governor, told him it was 
on the 9th the statement was made. Up to the night of the 
17th of March the Governor sa} 7 s, "Fully impressed with the 
belief that Jones had seen Senator McCreery's name, with 
that of Beck, upon the paper," &c. Now does anybody be- 
lieve that he had not seen my letters to Silvertooth, Holt, 
and Hewitt, whom he had advised to write to me, and to 
whom I had written days if not weeks before, telling them 
all I knew about the matter, viz., the iuterview with Duncan, 
just as narrated in my published letters, and on all occasions 
when the subject was spoken of? This was an important 
matter; the Governor desired to know it, and so did his 
friends, who wished to use it in their defence at home for 
having voted against McCreery for Senator. And just here 
I will mention, that a gentleman, a near friend of the Gov- 
ernor, informs me that he heard the Governor say, if he 
knew this report of McCreery recommending Burbridge to 
be true, he would place it in the hands of his friends to meet 
attacks from McCreery's friends for having voted against 



27 

him; and this exactly comports with his expression, to the 
same effect, to me in the bed-room. There is no doubt in 
my mind that the moment, so to speak, that these gentle- 
men received my letters, they went to Governor Stevenson 
to give him their contents. He could not, therefore, but 
have known what I had said upon the subject long before 
the night of the 17th March. No; the object of his letter 
of the 18th, written, as he says, "under impulse and excite- 
ment, and in great haste," was not for my benefit and for me 
to be corroborated; he is too cold a man to act thus for a 
friend; but it was for his own benefit, and to corroborate 
himself, as I think I shall show before my conclusion. The 
Governor says that "he (Mr. Trabue) also informed him that 
the Hon. E. C. Marshall had informed him (Trabue) that 
Colonel Jones had mentioned the subject of the recommend- 
ation of General Burbridge to him at the Cincinnati races." 
There must be some mistake here again. I have no idea 
that Mr. Marshall said anything on that subject, as I do not 
think it was mentioned in our conversation at the races; but 
if he did, he could have made no such statement as would 
comport with that of Mr. Trabue's or Governor Stevenson's, 
and, as the basis of my belief, I insert extracts from a letter 
of Mr. Marshall to me, of date March 16, 1870: 

"Versailles, Ky., March 16, 1870. 
"Hon. T. L. Jones. 

"Dear Sir: There has been a rumor in this district that 
Mr. Beck promoted the nomination of General Burbridge 
for the office to which Delano was appointed. You would, 
as a member from Kentucdy, of course, know if this is true, 
and how it may be proved." 

Again, after speaking of his being a candidate for Congress 
against Mr. Beck, or in his district: 

"I write to you to ask information in this Burbridge affair, 
and hope it will consist with your views and engagements 
to put me in the way of obtaining the proof. I am sorry to 
trouble you, as I know how fully your time is occupied, hut I 
hope you will not consider it an unwarranted liberty. 

"I am, with great respect, your friend, 

"E. C. Marshall." 

There is no allusion in the letter to any conversation about 
Burbridge as having occurred at the races or elsewhere. I 
answered this letter at once, telling Mr. Marshall all I knew 
of the Burbridge matter, as I had told others, and saying 



28 

also, if I am not greatly mistaken, that I never heard Mr. 
Beck's name connected with it. 

I insert here the correspondence between Colonel Duncan 
and myself to show that there is no material difference in 
our statements: 

"Louisville, March 29, 1870. 
"Hon. T. L. Jones. 

"Dear Sir: Several persons have asked me concerning 
the appointment sought by General Burbridge, of internal 
revenue, from President Johnson, alleging that you have 
given a minute account of my approaching you upon the 
subject to indorse him. As I never did so, and was not 
aware of General Burbridge having applied for such a posi- 
tion, I must request you to correct the statements. 

"I presume that you have simply fallen into an errer and 
have forgotten what occurred. I was requested by some of 
General Burbridge's friends to ascertain whether the Ken- 
tucky delegation would unite in a request which was written 
out and handed to me. That was to give General Burbridge 
a commission in the army. I went in the House, saw you, 
Beck, Trimble, and Knott, and each expressed a disinclina- 
tion to recommend General Burbridge for anything. I 
obtained no signatures, because I had been told they were 
useless, if any of the delegation declined, and I did not see 
either of the Senators. The paper was handed back by me 
just as I received it. 

" Some of Burbridge's friends were aiding me in the at- 
tempt to recover my property, and their request to me to aid 
them in this point was promptly acceded to as a quid pro 
quo. 

" Whether any of the delegation signed a recommendation 
for Burbridge as an officer in the internal revenue depart- 
ment I have no knowledge whatever, and certainly had 
nothing to do with it. 

" I would be obliged if you would show this to Senator 
McCreery, Beck, Knott, and Trimble. 

"Yours, truly, "Blanton Duncan." 

"House of Representatives, 

"Washington, D. C, April 2, 1870. 

" Dear Sir: Yours of the 29th ultimo is just received, and 

I am glad you have written to me on the subject referred to. 

" Your statement is quite correct, and almost precisely such 

as I have made. I have never spoken upon the matter of a 

recommendation for General Burbridge, except when appealed 



29 

to, and then to this effect. All I knew about it was that Col- 
onel Blauton Duncan had called upon me at the House of 
Representatives, and asked me if I would be willing to unite 
in a recommendation of General B. for office; that the 
Kentucky delegation or some of them would do, or thought 
of doing so, or some words to that effect, and I promptly 
declined. I do not remember that you mentioned any par- 
ticular office. I believe I said to one person that perhaps it 
might have been Commissioner of Internal Revenue. 

"You never showed me any paper, nor spoke of any 
paper. 

"The only person who, to the best of my knowledge, 
alluded to the subject to me at Frankfort last winter, was 
Governor Stevenson, and I told him all I knew about it was 
just what I have said above. It seems that he then miscon- 
strued my words, as he has admitted by letter to me. A false 
impression seems to have prevailed in Frankfort as to what 
I said upon the subject. Mr. Holt, -of the Senate, and Gen- 
eral Hewitt, of Frankfort, wrote to me to know if Mr. Mc- 
Creery and one or two others wrote to me to know if Mr. 
Beck had signed a recommendation' for Burbridge, and I 
replied, saying in substance just what I have said above to 
you, being all I knew about the matter. Hearing of these 
false reports as to my statement, I have ordered a card to be 
published in the Courier- Journal, which you have probably 
seen. I never imputed any improper motive to you, and 
was reluctant to mention your name, as you may see by my 
letter to General Hewitt; and I attributed your instrument- 
ality (however small) in the matter to your kind feelings for 
General Burbridge, in return for aid given you by his friends, 
perhaps by himself, in recovering your property from the 
Government. 

"This is an unpleasant affair to all; but so far as I am con- 
cerned, the truth shall be made manifest. 

"Truly, yours, &c, Thos. L. Jones. 

"Col. Blanton Duncan." 

The Governor also says: "I had heard also from a gen- 
tleman of the highest character, whose name I will not, 
unless it hereafter becomes necessary, drag into this contro- 
versy, say that he heard Colonel T. L. Jones, at Colonel I. T. 
Martin's, in Cynthiana, upon the day of the inauguration of 
the Confederate monument, allude to this recommendation 
of General Burbridge, and the distinct impression left upon 
my informant's mind, from what Colonel Jones said, was, 



30 

that all the Kentucky delegation in Congress had recom- 
mended Burbridge except himself." Now, I defy the Gov- 
ernor to bring out the "gentleman of the highest charac- 
ter;" and it is a little remarkable he did not bring him out 
or allude to him more particularly, as he does not hesitate to 
bring ladies on the stage whose identity many cannot doubt. 
This is a delicacy of the Governor somewhat difficult to 
explain, and especially as he calls Mr. Beck's opponent for 
Congress and his own would-be son-in-law. But, in refer- 
ence to the dinner in Cynthiana, /call upon the host himself,. 
Colonel Martin, on whose immediate left I sat at the table, 
and who doubtless heard every word I uttered, to say whether 
the Burbridge matter was mentioned at all, and what I said 
upon the subject, if it was mentioned. I have no recollec- 
tion that it was then spoken of, but if it was, I do know that 
I made no statement of having seen paper or names, and no- 
body could justly have inferred any such thing from what I 
said, or that the Kentucky delegation had recommended 
Burbridge. The Governor referred me to Colonel Penna- 
baker to find out something for him, in the same spirit, no 
doubt, which prompted him to try and put me as a spy upon 
McCreery and Beck, all to corroborate me in a statement 
which he knew as well as the God that created him I never 
made. It was all for his own purposes, as will appear in the 
sequel. 

As evidence of the Governor's desire to fasten a stigma 
upon Senator McCreery, and to give his friends material to 
defend themselves, I here submit an extract of a letter from 
him, dated February 9, 1870: 

" I learn from a letter written by to , that Mc- 
Creery is using his influence with radicals to have me re- 
jected. Can this be possible? has no doubt of it, and 

says the squibs from Washington of Mack and others are 
prompted by McCreery. I will not credit this until it is 
confirmed. If true, I want it known through the length and 
breadth of Kentucky. The indignation of those who have 
heard the rumor is vehement and denunciatory. McCreery 
is the last man whom I could have supposed would have 
stooped to such a course. It is unlike him, as I have known 
him. Do you think it is so ? If you can find out incident- 
ally from the Republicans, I wish you would write to me. 
"Very faithfully, 

"J. W. Stevenson. 

"Col. T. L. Jones." 



31 

Now, if he possessed the Burbridge material, which he 
admits he had told his friends on the 10th of January, as 
communicated by me, already sufficient to destroy McCreery, 
why would he be appealing to me for additional material to 
spread "through the length and breadth of Kentucky?" 
Indeed, is it not remarkable that in none of his correspond- 
ence with me since the Senatorial banquet has he mentioned 
or alluded to this awful Burbridge matter at all. 

I replied to this letter, saying I could hear of no such thing 
against Senator McCreery, and could not believe him guilty 
of it. Why did not the Governor here, if he were the fair and 
frank man he assumes to be in this business, "appeal to Sen- 
ator McCreery himself," or ask me to do so, as he 1 i d ad- 
vised his friends to do, saying, "He is a man of truth and 
honor" — "his word is his bond," &c. 

Now as to the origin of this slander, the Governor says 
in his statement: "Senator McCreery must know that I 
neither originated nor circulated the rumor of Ins alleged 
recommendation of General Burbridge for office," and he 
goes on to argue adroitly and tries to prove that the slander 
had its origin in Washington, refers to the interview of 
Colonel Duncan with me, and says: "If what Colonel Dun- 
can said was true or untrue," &c, and represents me report- 
ing the slander "as emanating from Colonel Blanton Dun- 
can." Now, nobody has charged Colonel Duncan with 
untruth. He did not say to me that McCreery had recom- 
mended Burbridge, nor did I ever state that he said so. 
There is no material difference in the statements of Colonel 
Duncan and myself. The slander was not in the rumor, but 
in the actual statement of a falsehood. Who first made this 
statement and began to circulate it? 

The Governor admits, in his letter of the 26th March, that 
he misunderstood me; he now admits, in his statement, that 
he did allude to the subject on the 10th January, and then, 
no doubt, he began to circulate his misunderstanding of what 
I said. 

The slander was not in what Duncan said to me, or what 
I narrated, but the misunderstanding and misrepresentation 
of Governor Stevenson was and is the only slander in the 
case, which, under a fair construction of the Governor's ad- 
mission, had its birth on the 10th day of January. But it 
may have had it long before. In other words, the Governor 
admits that he misunderstood me. This is an admission 
that I never said that I had seen a paper with the names of 
McCreery, Beck, and Golladay upon it. What I did say in 



32 

my conversation with him appears in the correspondence now 
published, and this is all I said, by his own admission. Now, 
I submit, can he, from anything I did say, have understood 
or construed me as he afterwards reported me, and does it 
not inevitably follow that it was a pure fabrication on his 
part, all this about the names and the paper? and is it not 
to be set down alone to the eagerness of the Governor to 
injure McCreery. 

I now desire to call attention, with a little weariness no 
doubt to the reader and repetition of my own, but still amus- 
ing, if not instructive, to the fact that the Governor, although 
in his letter, written "under impulse," when the truth is most 
likely to come on a given point, fixed the date of our conver- 
sation on the night of the banquet, yet since he has required 
witnesses fixes it in his statement on the 9th, and, to make it 
very truthful, no less than eight times, as follows: 1st. "Upon 
Sunday night the 9th of January, a lady friend," &c. 2d. 
" Colonel Jones had upon the night of the 9th of January," 
&c. 3d. "Viz, on the 9th of January, and certainly three 
persons besides myself were present, and heard every word 
which was said by Colonel Jones in regard to it." 4th. " That 
Colonel Jones did state upon the 9th of January;" and, 
5th. " That Colonel T. L. Jones had stated to me on the night 
of the 9th that he had seen the written recommendation," &c. 
6th. " Colonel Jones admits in his letter of the 21st, that on 
the night of the 9th January," &c. 7th. "Again Colonel 
Jones, upon the night of the 9th Januar}^, tells us," &c. 8th. 
"Now, I assert that from the day the Legislature assembled 
to the 9th of January, I never heard this rumor directly or 
indirectly alluded to." 

It often happens that one untruth requires another and 
many to support it. 

What shall I call these eight distinct assertions without 
the slightest foundation of truth? I deny emphatically every 
one of them. And so far as the 6th is concerned, that " Col- 
onel Jones admits, in his letter of the 21st, that on the night 
nf tbf fRh January," &c. I admit nothing on the 9th. Reader, 
examine my letter of the 21st, and see for yourself; and I 
never can admit the statement of the Governor, which I shall 
ever believe he himself knows to be untrue. But I place 
right here the statement of one of his nearest friends, Dr. J. 
Russell Hawkins, of Frankfort, long and now the clerk of 
the Kentucky Senate, whose character stands unimpeached, 
whose word no man will doubt, and whom Governor Steven- 
son has known nearly all his life : 



33 

" Sunday, April 4, 1870. 
"Had conversation this day with Dr. J. E. Hawkins, who 
says Stevenson told him that he only inferred from conver- 
sation with Jones that he, Jones, had seen the signature of 
McCreery to papers of Burbridge, and that Jones did not 
say he had seen any such papers, but he (Stevenson) only 
inferred it from the conversation. Geo. B. Hodge, 

"J. Taylor." 

I certify on honor that the above is a true copy from a 
memorandum of the conversation with Dr. J. R. Hawkins, 
taken down and signed by myself and Colonel Taylor within 
three minutes after its utterance by Dr. Hawkins. The orig- 
inal is in my possession. George B. Hodge. 

Dr. Hawkins, on the same day, and after my noting his 
previous conversation, had his attention called to the facts, 
and repeated the expression verbatim. G. B. H. 

These gentlemen, General George B. Hodge and Colonel 
James Taylor, both of Newport, Kentucky, are well known 
to the country. I am credibly informed, also, that Dr. Haw- 
kins made the same statement at the residence and in pres- 
ence of liis brother, E. W. Hawkins, Esq., of Newport. 

I repeat the 8th assertion of the Governor: "Now, I 
assert that, from the day the Legislature assembled to the 
9th of January, I never heard this rumor directly or indirectly 
alluded to." Again he says: "If the subject of this recom- 
mendation was ever talked of prior to the 8th of January, 
by me or my friends, it is susceptible of proof. I aver that 
no one can be found who will assert it." I place now in 
answer to that a letter from Major J. J. Marshall, of Oldham 
county, brother of the Hon. Humphrey Marshall, and a gen- 
tleman well known in Kentucky: 

"Oldham County, Ky., May 11, 1870. 
"Colonel T. L. Jones, 

" Washington City. 
"Dear Sir: Your favor of the 30th ult. was received on 
Saturday evening last. You wish to know if 'Mr. J. T. 
Berry asked me if I could support a man who had recom- 
mended Burbridge for office,' and also, ' if I will do you the 
favor to state when it was he asked me that question and in 
what connection.' I have no objection to answering all your 
interrogatories, and for that purpose will give you a short 
resume of the whole affair as it occurred, as nearly and as 
clearly as I can remember. I think it was the evening before 



34 

the municipal election in Louisville this spring — February or 
March — I forget which. I walked into 'RuferV — the 'St. 
Charles' — in Louisville, to get my supper, or dinner, as you 
please, for I had eaten nothing since I left home in the morn- 
ing. It was about 8 o'clock. Mr. B. and some other gen- 
tlemen were in the room as I entered. I was invited by the 
company to take a drink with them, which I did, and then 
went into one of the little boxes to eat the supper I had 
ordered. In a short time Mr. B. came into the box where I 
was and took a seat. We commenced talking, but upon 
what subject I do not remember. During our conversation, 
however, the name of Mr. Vories, the Senator from this dis- 
trict, was used, and I made some remark — I do not remem- 
ber now what it was — in regard to his legislative action, when 
Mr. B. said, ' He is a sharp fellow and a first-rate hand to elec- 
tioneer.' I made no reply, and in a minute or two after B. 
said, 'You don't like him because he voted for Stevenson for 
Senator.' I replied, 'No, I do not like that.' He asked me 
'Why I was opposed to Stevenson.' I told him I thought 
Colonel McCreery, under all the circumstances, was entitled 
to a re-election, and I believed the people of the State wanted 
him re-elected. We talked the matter over for awhile, of 
course neither convincing the other of the ' error of his ways,' 
when B. remarked, I think in these very words: 'Would 
you support a man who recommended Burbridge for office?' 
Unhesitatingly I said I would not. He then said McC. had 
done so, and I am of the impression, although I am not certain, 
that afterwards, in reiterating the above, he connected Mr. 
Beck's name with that of Colonel McCreery as among those 
who had recommended Burbridge. I said I did not believe 
the statement, when he repeated it, and he said, "I suppose 
you would believe it if Tom Jones said so.' I told him if 
you were to say you knew it to be a fact, I supposed I would 
believe it. The exact words of his reply I do not know that 
I can quote, but I think they were these: 'Well, Colonel 
Jones does say so, and I can show it to you in his hand- 
writing,* or 'it is in his handwriting.' The impression 
made upon my mind was, that you had written to that effect, 
although 1 was still incredulous both of the fact of Colonel 
McCreery's recommendation of Burbridge, and of your hav- 
ing written to that effect, or even of your assertion of it. As 
it was neither pleasant or profitable to me to discuss the 
matter any further, I remained silent, and in a short time 
Mr. Berry left me, saying, however, previous to his going, 
that ' Governor Stevenson knew of this before the Senatorial elec- 



35 

Hon, but he made no use of it, for he would scorn to do such a 
thing, and if he could not be elected without using such things as 
thai, he would not hare the office." On that point I did not 
choose to make any observation, and there the conversation 
ended, and Mr. B. left me. Respectfully, 

"J. J. Marshall." 

Colonel James T. Berry, the gentleman alluded to in the 
above letter, is a brother-in-law of Governor Stevenson, and 
I have always esteemed him as a man of strict integrity, and 
my warm personal friend. He was in Frankfort during the 
senatorial contest, and one of the Governor's most active 
friends. 

The Governor says: "Senator McCreery seeks indirectly 
to produce the impression that his alleged recommendation 
of General Burbrklge was fabricated by me, and secretly 
used to his prejudice during the senatorial election;" and 
further on he says: "That truth and justice alike would 
seem to demand that no insinuation should be made that the 
scandal had been used during that contest in my behalf and 
to his prejudice." In answer to these bold paragraphs, I 
subjoin the following voluntary, timely, and manly letter: 

"Louisville, Ky., Mag 10, 1870. 
"Hon T. L. Jones. 

"Dear Sir: Having seen your letter in the Cornier Jour- 
nal, and believing that you are being unfairly dealt with, I 
have concluded to communicate one fact. Mr. Pierson, of 
this city, who is a member of the House of Representatives, 
says that the report that McCreery signed General Burbridge's 
reccommendation for office was circulated by Stevenson's 
friends during the canvass for United States Senate between 
McCreery and Stevenson, and that this report was the prin- 
cipal reason that caused him to vote for Stevenson. That he 
intended to vote for McCreery when elected, and until he 
learned this report. So Stevenson must have heard the report 
long before you came to Frankfort. For particular reasons 
I do not wish my name mentioned in connection with this 
matter. 

" I suppose Pierson would give a statement to that effect, if 
requested by some friend of yours, as I heard him say to-day 
that he would sign a petition requesting Stevenson to resign 
his office of United States Senator." 

The author of this letter is as true a gentleman as any in 
Kentucky, but I withhold Ms name for the present at his own 



36 

request. I would prefer Mr. Pierson's statement, of course; 
he will not deny, I presume, what is said in this letter. He 
can easily be found. 

I also insert the following extract from a letter of a well- 
known gentleman in the county of Jefferson : 

"I heard from a friend that Mr. Pierson, a member of the 
Legislature, had said in his and my brother's presence, that 
he was a McCreery man, but in consequence of the Bur- 
bridge charges had voted for Stevenson, and that he knew 
positively of a number of others who were influenced by 
the same cause. The parties mentioned above are responsi- 
ble and reliable." 

I withhold the name of this gentleman, although he has 
not desired it, but his integrity will not be questioned. 

A word now upon the term " strictly confidential," which 
the Governor so frequently mentions, as if to implj^ that I 
had been guilty of a breach of confidence or propriety in 
reading parts of his letters to the few individuals I named to 
him. I explained to him that I thought it necessary to read 
them in order to set us both right, and this is the opinion of 
all those to whom I did read them. It is the habit of the 
Governor to mark his letters "strictly confidential," and I 
do not think there are two out of ten of the numbers I have 
received from him without this mark, although one is sur- 
prised to know, in reading them, what he desires to be kept 
in confidence. It is so common with him, that I have attached 
but little importance to it. But I deny that he could impose 
confidence in regard to these letters. A man may claim con- 
fidence in matters personal to himself, but I deny that he can 
defame another, or attempt to involve a friend under the seal 
of confidence and secresy. As well stab a man, and say don't 
show the blood or send for a surgeon, it is a confidential stab; 
I am chief of State, you are my friend; you must suffer, and, 
if needs be, die to save the State. What! engender the 
loathsome spawn of slander and cast it into my nest for in 
cubation, to be warmed into life and be defended by me? 
No ! I dash back the foul offspring into the face of its pro- 
genitor, that it may defile only the seat of its origin. 

I have now adverted, I believe, to all the points in the 
Governor's statement which I need answer. It has required 
time, and has tried the patience of the reader, it is true, but 
he will remember that character is at stake, which to a proud 
man is dearer than life. 



37 

Now, what has the Governor done, and how am I in future 
to regard him? He has, in my opinion, told to his friends, 
and for purposes of his own, perhaps now understood by the 
[public, that which he knew to be false, and against his long- 
tried and best friend. When the denial of McCreery and 
Beck went to Frankfort the falsehood was developed, and 
the Governor, " under impulse and excitement and in great 
haste,*' finds it necessary to write to me in order to vindicate 
him with those to whom he had told the falsehood, and make 
a statement which he knew to be untrue, and knowing at the 
same time that I would deny it. He reflected, however, that 
he could accept my statement ; say he had unintentionally 
misunderstood me, and could set me right and himself too, 
with all those to whom he had so falsely spoken ! 

All this, indeed, he says he did, and quite overcomes me 
with praise and adulation. He has now, he thinks, recov- 
ered from his great indiscretion and is safe, and here I 
would have covered him with the mantle of charity and bid 
the matter rest forever. But the still aggrieved Senator 
projects a missile which disconcerts and seems to destroy 
him. He looks about and considers long and well; finally 
determines that the only hole for him to escape will be 
through the character of his friend; he must acknowledge 
himself false, else so prove his friend, and he sets about the 
work to weave a net around him in the meshes of which he 
is to be bound to death. Yes, he forgets all his fond love 
and praise, for (he says) my "honor, truth, and nobility of 
character," and after having urged even "Mr. Trabue and 
Mr. Castleman that it was due to Colonel Jones that we 
should accept his statement of what he did say," yet he 
sets about to prove me a falsifier, and calls these men and 
only these to the witness-stand. He concludes with Iago in 
his soliloquy — 

"Ay that's the way; 
Dull not device by coldness and delay." 

He goes to Louisville and to Covington, and sends others 
also, aa I have been informed, to find out whether I had 
made the statement in those places; he might have gone to my 
immediate friends and relatives — my father-in-law, brothers- 
in-law, even my wife — and he could have heard . nothing 
that would have made evidence, for it never existed. He is 
driven back to his own domicil, the sanctity of his own 
family, which he violates, and there he thinks he has found 
the material. He has even attempted to skulk behind the 
drapery of fair woman, and place her husband in antago- 



38 

nism to me; said even on one occasion, as I am informed, 
that I would have to settle the matter with a gentleman, 
well-known to me, of courage and honor, and the report 
went forth involving our names in a difficulty. But I had 
no apprehension that that gentleman would place himself in 
defence of anything which he did not know to be true, and 
especially against a friend. But the Governor! Oh, shade 
of Virginia chivalry, canst thou veil the deformity of thy 
degenerate son ! 

Look for a moment at the reason and sense of this thing. 
I go home and mingle with my constituents freely, have 
daily intercouse with gentlemen all around me in Covington 
and Newport, never a word about seeing a paper and names 
upon it for Bui-bridge, to them, or even in the inmost recesses 
of my family circle; but I am invited to the Governor's ban- 
quet, and there, before the assembled Legislature and many 
others, I raise this dreadful hobgoblin, and slander my col- 
leagues, with whom I am on terms of perfect friendship. I 
even present the frightful apparition in the Governor's pri- 
vate parlor and before ladies. What the impelling motive? 
What the intent? Fellow-citizens, is it like the man who 
addresses you, or does it bear the slighest shadow of reason 
and truth? The motive was not with me, but facts and cir- 
cumstances point in another direction. 

But even if these charges which the Governor brings 
against me were true, which I never can admit, or I had in- 
advertently used any language capable of misconstruction 
upon so portentous a subject, was it becoming in him on the 
10th, as he admits, and perhaps before the smoke of the 
engine which carried me away was lost in the air, (for I left 
him at the depot,) to begin to circulate his recollection of a 
private conversation, under the sanctity of his own roof, even 
if it occurred, as he pretends, before a few of his family cir- 
cle? Why, if he thought there had been anything in it, or 
attached any importance to it, as the "dear friend of mine," 
which he calls himself, can you upasgia© that lip would not 
have referred to it in the long conversation in the bed-room 
the second night, probably again and again, or on the walk 
to the depot in the morning, to have satisfied himself as to 
my words or meaning? But he never alludes to it once, by 
word or letter, to me from the hour it was spoken until that 
"haste and excitement letter" came of the 18th March. It 
might be well for Kentucky gentlemen to beware how they visit 
the " Governor's palace," for the present term at least, unless 
indeed their honors are insured before they enter its portals. 



39 

See the infamy. A man high in position appeals " to God 
and the people of Kentucky for honor, truth, fidelity, and 
uprightness, in both official and private life," and makes a 
statement which, I am convinced, he knows to be false, and 
then attempts to prove it upon one who has been his best 
friend. Oh, Heaven ! I had not supposed that human mean- 
ness could have descended so deep. I have known this man 
long and well, but owe him nothing. The obligation, if any, 
is to me, and he knows it. I have stood by him when others 
faltered and abandoned. I have always overlooked his weak 
points, which were not few, and appreciated his stronger ones ; 
but his present showing reveals what was probably always 
in him, and what now in his dilemma would "no longer 
down." To save himself he would tarnish the honor of his 
friend of twenty years, and although he oils him with his 
tongue, yet presents him to the people of Kentucky as a liar. 

I may forgive, bat never, never forget. The unpleasant 
memories of this friendship I throw to the dogs; the purer 
ones I blow to heaven. 

The executive mansion of Kentucky has been occupied by 
illustrious names — the Shelbys, the Deshas, the Garrards, 
the Scotts, the Clarkes, the Letchers, the Wickliffes, the 
Crittendens, Moreheads, Powels, Helms, and others; but 
it was reserved for this ignoble son of noble Virginia first to 
tarnish the honor of the house. What would a man not do 
who has done as he? Might he not pour poison in the cup 
of his invited friend, or draw with deadly chloroform the 
breath of his sleeping guest? For what is honor but life; 
yea, sweeter than life itself. Has the executive mansion of 
Kentucky become a corner for gossip and falsehood and foul 
slander, to "knot and gender in?" Has the blood of the 
Borgias sprung from the tomb of ages, and become vivified 
in the person of Kentucky's Governor ? 

But the inquiry is now one of veracity between the Gov- 
ernor and myself. We are both in responsible places. I 
shrink not from the investigation, and invite it from in- 
f.,,,,.^ ^ preueirc age. i can up the proud men of Virginia 
and Carolina, where we and our families are both well known; 
let them speak from boyhood to eartj numterodr; y«, early 
manhood, and on. I call up the brave and gallant men of 
our adopted State, who have known us for twenty years and 
more, and I place before them my word and integrity as a man 
against his. But in this business, in which he is the arch 
perpetrator, has not the *< mischief of his own lips" covered 



40 

him? "Let not an evil speaker be established in the 
earth." 

I now dismiss this subject, and would fain hope for good 
and all. It has been long and tedious to me, perhaps more 
so to my readers. But how shall I dismiss this whilom friend, 
now so false and treacherous? 

Hence, from my sight and memory forever! go thou — shall 
I say, liar, slanderer, coward? — from the presence of honest 
men and gentlemen; and if before this unhappy strife shall 
end, blood shall flow, whether I or another may fall, I brand 
thy brow with the blackness of Cain; wander up and down 
in the earth; wear the mark as long as thou livest ; and when 
thou diest thou shalt surely so appear before thy God ! 

My countrymen, if in what I Lave saM language is em- 
ployed which falls upon your ears as violent and unnecessary, 
I ask your pardon, but beg you to reflect that it comes from 
a man sensitive in the extreme, who feels that a serious at- 
tempt has been made to wound his honor and blast his repu- 
tation before the State and the world. But I trust that in 
your judgment the coils so artfully woven around me are 
shivered into atoms, and that I stand before you in the sun- 
light of truth. But "come what, come ma} r ," I am at peace 
within; for as I stand before God and saints and angels, in 
all I have said, to the best of my knowledge, I have spoken 
the truth. 

Falsehood and vice oft for a season prevail against truth 
and virtue, but I calmly and confidently abide the issue. 

"Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; 
The eternal years of God are her's ; 
But error, wounded, writhes with pain, 
And dies among her worshipers." 

Your obedient servant, 

THOMAS LAURENS JONES. 
Washington, D. C, May 16, 1870. 



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